December 29, 2025 • 47 mins
In this episode, Brody shares updates from around Snowbird, including recent transitions, answered prayers, and the growing anticipation for Winter SWO retreats. He also gives a preview of the teaching focus for Winter SWO, walking through 1 John and its clear picture of authentic Christianity.
Using 1 John, Brody outlines ten defining marks of a Christian:
- Who Jesus is
- What Jesus has done
- Christians still sin, but don’t love sin
- Christians obey God
- Christians love other believers
- Christians remain faithful
- Christians do not love the world
- Christians test what they hear by truth
- Christians are born of God
- Christians can know they are saved
This episode calls believers to be rooted in the Gospel and shaped by truth. Pointing toward a faith that endures, marked by obedience, love for the church, discernment, and real assurance in Christ.
Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help improve No Sanity Required and help others grow in their faith.
Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Hey, in this week's episode, we're going to give you
kind of an overview of the studythat we're doing at Winter Swow.
I know a lot of our listenerswill be coming to Winter Swow
over the next month or so, overthe next few weeks.
Winter Swow is an event thattakes place in January and
February at Snowbird.
And the first one actually uhwe're in the middle of it right
(00:21):
now.
Uh it just started uh a coupledays ago, and uh we'll we'll run
multiple winter conferences umthroughout the months of January
and February.
We actually start it in Decemberuh just because that break
between Christmas and New Year,um, that's when students are out
of school.
So we run a couple of eventsthere.
(00:42):
We're in the middle of thatright now, and uh oh man, I I
love winter swow.
It's for us, it's awesomebecause uh we we have been off.
The last event that we did atSnowbird was the marriage
conference, and that was at theend of October.
So we did three fall retreats inOctober.
We had three student mysteryevents the first three weekends
(01:04):
of October, then a marriageconference, and then November,
December pretty much take off.
And so I'm looking forward tocatching up a little bit, just
giving you an update on kind ofhow things have gone at the end
of the year here at Snowbird,uh, an update on that, and then
kind of where we're going forwinter swow.
And then we're gonna walkthrough an overview of First
John today, give you the main,I'm gonna give you 10 bullet
(01:28):
points that are sort of anoverview of First John that
we're gonna be covering at ourwinter swow.
If you come to Winter Swow, thenyou're gonna get uh you're gonna
get this content and in teachingformat over the next uh we'll
we'll do it in five or sixsessions.
I can't remember now.
Five or six sessions.
It's five sessions typically.
Some students, uh some somegroups stay an extra evening and
(01:51):
get a sixth session.
But um, yeah, I'll give you anoverview of that and uh and give
you an update on what's going onhere end of the year at
Snowbird.
How do we wrap uh the calendaryear up and kind of what we're
excited about going into 2026?
Welcome to No Sanity Required,y'all.
SPEAKER_00 (02:11):
Welcome to No Sanity Required from the Ministry of
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters,a podcast about the Bible,
culture, and stories from aroundthe globe.
SPEAKER_01 (02:21):
Before I get into this, I gotta I gotta apologize.
Um the episode I uh I I justrecorded um an episode that is
has not dropped yet, but I'mapologizing ahead of time.
Um it's gonna be kind of a firstof the year episode, and I I I
(02:44):
recorded it in my study, andI've got a table that uh it's
it's a homemade stand-up table.
It's the one where you stand infront of it, you can't sit down.
It doesn't, it's not electronic,it doesn't rise and raise and
lower.
It's just a table that you'vegot to stand at because it's too
tall.
It's a it's like a bar.
And it's squeaky.
I didn't realize it was squeaky.
(03:04):
I kept leaning on it, and then Iwent back and I was listening to
the episode, and you can hearthis squeaky noise the whole
time.
I feel terrible uh because thisis not where I typically record.
But anyway, um apologies aheadof time for that.
Uh but but I want to I want totell y'all kind of how our year
ended.
Man, we had an awesome year uhat Snowbird in 2025.
(03:28):
It was amazing.
And we always say that, we throwaround those two words, awesome
and amazing, a lot.
I know.
I I use those words a lot in myvocabulary.
We use them a lot at Snowbird.
But but it the fact is, 2025, wesaw the Lord do so many awesome
things, and we went, not gonnalie, we went through some some
transition as a ministry.
(03:48):
We lost some people, we had somefolks leave um uh and go on to
other things.
Uh excited for for for some ofthose people and what God's
doing.
Dawson Dickey is uh who servedat Snowbird so faithfully over
the last few years and hasbecome a really kind of a
fixture at Snowbird.
Dawson has moved on.
(04:09):
He's uh an associate pastor inTennessee.
I'm excited for him.
That was, you know, Dawson'scalling and dream was to be a
pastor, and he still wants to dothat.
I think ultimately he'd love toplan a church or do a
revitalization.
So this was a good next step forhim.
But I bring Austin's name up tosay at the end of the year, as
everybody was praying for Greg,my son-in-law, and my daughter
(04:31):
Kilby, and and uh in theirsituation, we were also praying
for Dawson's family.
They were in a terrible carcrash.
This was back uh, this wouldhave been like right at the end
of November, going intoDecember.
I think the wreck happenedaround November 29th, maybe
30th, something like that.
(04:52):
But it was a bad wreck.
And uh Dawson's dad, who's a agood and close friend of this
ministry, uh, man, he he was hewas severely injured, uh, in a
coma, uh head injury, so a lotof prayers for the the Dickey
family.
Um But it was it was kind ofcrazy having Dawson having left
(05:16):
Snowbird just a couple monthsprior, and then this happened.
It it I don't know if you everhad this experience where you
want to support somebody andencourage them, but how do you
do that when you're doing itfrom a distance?
And so um we've just beenpraying for the Dickey family
and for David, Dawson's dad,just for his healing and and
(05:36):
restored health, and um wouldask you to also pray for them.
But uh, Miss Dawson, excited forwhere he's headed, what God's
doing in his life.
And so this is this is all allthat to say, this is a
transitional period at Snowbird.
And I love transition because alot of people I think are scared
of transition and uh and thenother people are obsessed with
(05:59):
it.
So what you end up with is somepeople are so fixated on not
letting anything change thatthey get stuck, it's easy to get
stuck in a rut.
Other people can't stay put morethan you know a short period of
time, and it seems like they'reconstantly bouncing around and
on to the next thing.
You see this, we've just comethrough the college football
season.
We're kind of in uh at the tailend of it here with the playoffs
(06:22):
and all that, but uh what thecoach in carousel, you see a
coach that can't stay put.
There's uh there's a guy namedLane Kiffin who a lot of you
know uh and are sports fans,especially college football
fans, but some of you are not.
But Lane Kiffin's a guy, he's areal controversial figure in the
college football coaching world.
(06:42):
And part of what makes himcontroversial is he he doesn't
stay put.
He he moves on to the nextthing, and some people say,
well, it's the money or it's theprestige, or he's just a
controversial person.
He loves stirring the pot.
I don't know, I have no idea.
But I do know that a lot ofpeople, they don't they have a
hard time sticking to somethingfor a long period of time, and
(07:05):
and and while other people uhdon't want any change to come.
And so when I say I I getexcited about a period of
transition, what I mean is thereare times where whether it's in
your personal life, yourbusiness, your ministry, where
growth reaches a point wherethere has to be some change that
(07:28):
happens.
You've grown to a point wherethings won't work the way
they've always worked.
Or, you know, you've you'vegotta you've gotta grow with the
times or expand your vision,your dream, uh, you know,
something like that.
We were sitting in the snowbirdmedia office uh not long ago.
This was uh a couple weeks ago,and kind of reflecting on the
end of the year and thedirection we're taking some
(07:51):
things.
And we had just had our snowbirdChristmas party.
We have a staff, like an alumChristmas party every year in
the middle of December.
And so we had that Christmasparty back on, I think it was
December 13th, maybe.
And uh it was so good to see aton of our former staff and so
(08:12):
many people.
We had a we had a group ofpeople come in that were that it
was the 10-year anniversary ofthe first year that we did the
Snowbird Institute, theleadership institute.
And we had uh several folks comein that were part of that
institute.
Um two couples that I know offor sure came in that were part
(08:32):
of that institute, and they hadmet and married in that
institute.
Um and then another uh gal whowas here with her husband, he
wasn't part of the institute,but she had been.
It was just cool seeing peoplehadn't seen in a while, and and
reflecting and remembering back.
And uh we were we were having aconversation like the Monday or
Tuesday, I think it was theMonday after the Christmas
(08:53):
party.
We're up there in the mediaoffice, and somebody, I think
Austin Scott was saying thatthere were a lot of people
saying that snowbird, you know,oh man, I miss I missed when
snowbird was like this or whenit was like that, and they were
thinking back to the quoteunquote good old days, and they
were saying, Man, it used to bewe used to do things this way
(09:15):
and we used to do things thatway.
And a lot of that was beingtalked about because of some
skits that were done at theChristmas party that were like
throwbacks to, I mean, earlysnowbird days.
There was one skit that was athrowback to the early 2000s,
and one that was a throwback to,you know, 2015, and one that was
a th, you know, and then likesome references to some
different periods in snowbirdhistory.
(09:36):
And somebody was saying, man,it's changed.
It's not the same.
And I was explaining to ourmedia team, of course it's
changed.
When you grow, you change.
And and and people tend tonostalgia is a tricky, a very
deceptive thing.
Nostalgia can rob you of the joyof what God's doing, it can rob
(10:00):
you of purpose for the future,it can take away drive and
energy and vision, and it cankind of trick you and lull you
into this idea that, man, therewas a time where things were so
good.
Listen, I want to explainsomething that I think is an
important principle.
The good old days were not asgood as you think they were.
You, you're, you tend to, I dothis.
(10:22):
We tend to remember somethingnot exactly the way that it was.
And when you're growing as aperson or you're growing as a
ministry or you're growing yourbusiness or your church, it's
easy to think back to whatthings used to be and long for
that.
But I'm gonna tell yousomething.
As much as I loved Snowbird in2008, Snowbird in 2002, snowbird
(10:48):
in 2014, I'm just telling you,Snowbird in 2025 is the best
version of Snowbird that there'sever been.
Why?
Because it's a ministry thatjust like a person is being
sanctified and matured andgrowth is is constant and
steady.
And so as we grow as people andas this grows as a ministry,
(11:08):
it's easy to look back and missthe quote unquote good old days.
But the reality is, Paul said,um, he said, looking ahead, I
don't look back.
I look ahead.
He says, he says, I'm can I'mconsidering the prize that's in
front of me, and I'm strivingtoward that prize.
We're at Snowbird, we'restriving toward the prize that's
(11:29):
been set before us.
And I don't want to look back inthe sense that I look back and
long for the good old days.
I want to look back andcelebrate what God's done.
I want to look back and havereflection on those wonderful
memories.
I won't shoot, I want to sitaround with people and look
back, and we all do this andlaugh and remember things that
(11:51):
were funny or remember thingsthat were hard or remember, you
know, seasons where we saw Godmove.
But the reality is if you're achild of God who is being
sanctified, conformed to theimage of Christ, or if you're in
a church that is growing inobedience to the Lord, then the
best days are always whereyou're at and what's coming
(12:12):
ahead.
It might be hard times.
You might be in the middle of atrial, you might be in the
middle of something verydifficult.
But I'm just telling you, thenature of sanctification is that
we're always growing more intothe image of Jesus.
This goes for ministries, itgoes for people.
And at Snowbird, I man, I canlike I can look at pictures from
2003 and just go down memorylane, and I love it.
(12:37):
It's wonderful.
I just, man, I I and there is apart of me that longs for those
days.
I'd love to go back and redo it,you know.
But that doesn't mean it wasbetter then than it is now.
It just means God did things inmy life during that period that
I now look back on with fondnessand with good memories.
And so we're sitting around inthe in the media office and I
(13:00):
was explaining to these guys,hey, 10 years from now, y'all
are going to have the tendencyto want to look back, oh man,
2025.
Remember that?
It was the best days atSnowbird.
Well, it's not.
Lord will, in 2035, we'll beexperiencing more growth, more
excitement, more energy, morelives being impacted, more, you
know, more vision.
And we'll look back at 2025 withfondness, and we'll look back at
(13:23):
2010 with fondness and 2000 withfondness, but God's always
moving and doing things andgrowing our ministry and growing
you and me.
And so don't get duped into thegood old days.
Now, I know there are somepeople that um have gone through
great loss.
You've lost a loved one, you'velost a child, you've lost a
(13:46):
spouse, and that's a differentsituation for you.
And I want to be sensitive tothat.
You look back to a time wherethat loved one was still here
and you were sharing lifetogether, man.
That's hard.
That's hard.
But that's where we have to thenlook forward to the fact that
one day we'll be reunitedbecause of what Christ has done.
(14:09):
Now, again, maybe you're lookingback at the loss of a loved one
who didn't know the Lord.
And and that's hard because youwonder, will I ever have peace
about where this person is?
So all of this to say, as aChristian, don't get caught up
in looking back and and and andsort of allowing that to stunt
(14:33):
your growth moving forward, bothas a person and a and as a
ministry or a church orwhatever.
We always got to be lookingforward.
Um there there are man, thereare ministry partners at
Snowbird that I miss.
They're now out of it, orthey've moved on to something
else, or staff members thatserved here that I wish they
could come back and serve.
(14:53):
The point being, um for thebeliever, God is always working
and moving and growing andsanctifying.
And so enjoy that.
Let the Lord um let the Lordshape you into the man or the
woman he wants you to be, andlet him shape your ministry into
the mission and ministry that hewants it to be.
(15:15):
That's what we're striving forat Snowbird.
And so we we came to the end ofthe year recognizing that, man,
we're in a transitional phaseand period.
We got some some new visions,some new dreams, some new ideas,
some new energy.
And I'm excited about that.
As we go into 2026, I'm soexcited about for instance, let
(15:39):
me let me just share with youone team I'm super excited
about.
I'm very excited about AustinScott's team.
He's he is leading a team inthat media and production room
that is a lot of new faces, alot of people that have stepped
into positions that six monthsago they were not in, didn't
envision being in.
But it's a team with this newpersonality and energy that I'm
(16:02):
excited about.
I'm so thankful for thedifferent the different phases
of development in thatdepartment and that program
here.
But I'm excited for the daysahead.
And if you came to, if you cameto the Fall Retreat at Snowbird,
uh the feedback we got on FallRetreat was so amazing.
And Austin worded it this way.
(16:23):
He said, people were saying itfelt like a new a new era at
Snowbird that had the feel oflike retro snowbird.
If you go back, if you came toSnowbird in, you know, in the
2000s and the things we would dowith the redneck games and the
rodeo and the craziness of twoof the 2000s here, it had that
feel, but but even betterbecause there's more resources,
(16:45):
more creativity, more uh more towork with.
And Fall Retreat was so fun, andthe feedback we got was so
great.
So I'm excited about the thingsthat are ahead in 2026 because
Austin's leading a team that'svery dynamic.
Um it's gonna sound different,look different.
It you're gonna see new faces onthe stage, but you're also gonna
see familiar faces on the stage.
(17:07):
I'm super excited and encouragedby the leadership of that young
staff in there, that that 19 to25 group that is sort of shaping
the the culture and personalityof Snowbird right now.
And it's it's very excitingbecause you still got the old,
you got the old guys here, theold guys and gals.
We're gonna keep, you know,we're gonna keep this thing
(17:28):
rooted until the next generationof old guys comes along and and
continues to keep it rooted.
And so right now I'm excitedabout 2026 because you've got
this dynamic of new energy, newvision, new direction, but
there's also the anchor that'snot gonna let us move too far
off of who God's called us to beand what God's called us to do.
(17:51):
It's exciting times.
Uh so what I want to do uh withthat update is uh I want to I
want to tell you that uh as aswinter swow is clicking along,
we're studying through 1 John,and I want to give you the the
the big ideas of 1 John thatwe're gonna be studying.
Whether you're coming here foran event or you're gonna when
once we release all the teachingcontent when winter swow is
(18:13):
over, you'll be able to listenthrough the teach the teaching
sessions.
Let me give you what what we'regonna talk about in 1 John.
There's big ideas of 1 John.
The first big idea in 1 John isuh 1 John looks at who Jesus is,
who Jesus is.
In the first two verses of 1John, we've got these sort of
(18:35):
statements of deity, that Jesusis truly God and he's truly
human.
And John is the the writer andthe apostle that focused on
that.
When you read through John'sgospel, the same guy wrote
John's gospel as wrote 1 John.
When you read through John'sGospel, you've got the deity of
Christ and the humanity ofChrist on on full display.
(18:58):
And uh and John does a reallygood job of explaining that.
Um and so his his first letterstarts off by declaring and sort
of reflecting on who Jesus is.
He's truly and fully God, andhe's truly and fully human.
And you see that in the firsttwo verses of the book.
Listen to how these these twoverses word this.
(19:20):
Uh, that which was from thebeginning, so that's Jesus.
John also writes in the gospel,in the beginning was the word,
and the word was with God, andthe word was God.
That which was from thebeginning.
So John's gospel and John'sletters start kind of in the
same same takeoff point.
That which was from thebeginning, which we've heard,
which we've seen with our eyes.
(19:41):
So he's saying the the eternalone has become physically human,
and we've seen him.
We've talked to him, we'vetouched him with our hands.
Um and and so you've got in thefirst verse this idea that Jesus
is both God eternal, but he'salso he has become human.
The life was made manifest.
Manifest, so the human life ofJesus was made manifest.
(20:03):
It was revealed to us, and we'veseen it, and we testify it and
proclaim to you the eternal lifewhich was with the Father and
was made manifest to us.
So in those verses, you've gotthe fact that Jesus is fully and
truly God, eternal, everlasting,but he's come and become human
and revealed himself to us inhuman form.
The next thing John's going totalk about is what Jesus did.
(20:27):
What Jesus did.
Now, before I go on, the reasonI want to give you this is not
only to sort of prime yourtheological pump and align you
with what we're getting ready totalk through in winter swow, but
I want you to think about this.
I want you to be encouraged thisweek.
As a Christian, these are 10things that you need to believe
(20:48):
and be bold in that belief, touse the phrase that was given to
me in teaching this at TrinityChristian Academy recently.
Adam Vinson had given me thisidea that, hey, bold in belief,
that's how we describe theseoverview things and ideas from 1
John.
So I want you to be bold inbelieving these things.
(21:08):
Are you bold in believing thatJesus was truly and fully God?
Are you bold in believing thathe became human and that he
lived in a real human form andworked and did the ministry that
he did and died and rose again?
And yeah, I want to be bold inthat.
I'm unashamed of that.
Paul says, I'm unashamed of thegospel.
What else should we be bold in?
(21:28):
The second thing is we should bebold in our belief and
confidence in what Jesus did.
What did Jesus do?
And why should we be bold inbelieving it?
Well, in 1 John 2, verse 2, itsays that he's our propitiation.
He's the propitiation for oursins.
That means he took God's wrathfor our sins.
Jesus died on the cross underthe weight of my sin, bearing
(21:54):
the wrath of God toward my sin.
Jesus did that.
So who is Jesus?
I need to be bold in my beliefthat Jesus is truly and fully
God and truly and fully human.
And what did Jesus do?
He died in my place.
He provided salvation, but hedidn't just provide it.
He did it specifically bybearing the wrath of God.
(22:15):
He accepted the wrath of God formy sin.
He died for my sin, though hehimself had never known sin.
Number three, Christians stillsin, but they don't love sin.
This is an important belief forthe believer.
This is something that uh thatJohn teaches that I'm thankful
(22:35):
for that as a Christian, I I'mI'm gonna I'm gonna make
mistakes.
I'm gonna still sin.
He I think he says it this wayin chapter one, verse eight.
He says, if we say we have nosin, we deceive ourselves, and
the truth is not in us.
If we say we have not sinned, wemake him a liar.
(22:56):
And somebody will say, Well,that's saying but that before
you became a Christian, you werea sinner, and to not recognize
that would you'd not get to apoint where you were ready to
receive salvation.
He says, if we have no sin, andthen later he says, now listen
to this.
So let me think how to how toword this.
(23:16):
Somebody that would say, John'sreference to the Christian as a
sinner in 1 John 1, 8 and 9, ifwe say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, is followedwith, if we confess our sins,
he's faithful and just toforgive us, so he'll forgive us
of our sins.
And in verse 10, if we say we'venot sinned, we make him a liar,
(23:37):
and his word is not in us.
People will argue and say thoseare those are verses referring
to uh before you were aChristian.
You have to recognize that youwere a sinner.
But he said, if God's word is inyou, you'll recognize that sin
is in you as well.
The relationship between theword of God in a believer's life
(23:57):
and sin in a believer's life isthat the word of God will shine
a light of exposure onto yoursin.
And then in chapter two, verseone, my little children, I'm
writing you these things to youso that you may not sin.
But if anyone does sin, we havean advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous.
Now, this is the verse thatreally supports, hey, as a
(24:19):
Christian, you're going to makea mistake, you're going to sin,
you're going to falter, you'regoing to fail, because he says,
My little children, this is aword that John uses, a phrase
that John uses to refer toChristians.
So he's saying, Hey, Christian,when you sin, Jesus will
advocate for you.
He'll speak for you before theFather.
So that's an important thing tobelieve that John is teaching.
(24:42):
Christians still sin, but theydon't love sin.
Next, Christians obey God.
Their life is marked byobedience, not sin.
Doesn't mean you won't makemistakes, but 1 John chapter 2,
right after he talks aboutsinning and making mistakes and
faltering and failing, he saysthis: By this we know that we
have come to know him if we keephis commandments.
(25:04):
So following in obedience to theLord, we're going to be marked
by obedience to his word and tohis commandments.
True faith will lead to a lifethat is changed.
And the evidence of that changedlife is going to be the way that
I obey the Lord.
I obey his word, even when Idon't do it perfectly.
(25:24):
Number five, Christians loveother believers.
John does a great job of talkingabout this in 1 John, the
relationship that Christianshave with each other.
Chapter 3, verse 14, he says, Weknow that we have passed out of
death into life because we lovethe brothers.
If you have a love for otherChristians, that's evidence that
(25:48):
you are spiritually alive.
Now, to the contrary, he says,everyone who hates his brother
is a murderer, and you know thatno murderer has eternal life
abiding in him.
Remember when Jesus said if youhate someone, it's like, it's
like committing murder.
And then what John's doing ishe's saying, Yeah, and if you
are a murderer, you don't haveeternal life in you because you
(26:10):
wouldn't be capable of murder ifyou did.
This is this word murder is astrong word.
It's not the idea of a policeofficer shooting someone who's,
you know, to protect human lifeor a soldier in battle.
This is this is talking aboutmurder as we know it according
to our law, the malicious takingof another person's life.
(26:32):
It's premeditated, it's it's uhit's it's meaningless or
purposeless, um, and it's evil.
It's not the same thing asself-defense or a war fighting
uh, you know, for a just causeor something like that.
That's controversial, I know,saying that, but that's just
facts.
Facts is facts.
God's love for us teaches us howto love others.
(26:55):
First John 4 um shows us thatGod's love towards us is the
love that we receive and then inturn love others.
Beloved, let us love oneanother, for love is from God.
And whoever has been born of Godknows God, is going to love
others.
So we love each other because ofthe love that God has for us.
(27:19):
So let me recap the first fivethings that we need to be bold
and believing as we study 1John.
We need to be bold in our beliefof who Jesus is.
We need to be bold in our beliefof what Jesus has done.
We need to be bold in our beliefthat Christians are gonna sin
and falter and fail, but they'renot gonna love their sin or be a
slave to it.
(27:40):
Um, number four, Christians aregonna live lives of obedience to
God.
Doesn't mean you're gonna alwaysbe perfect, and it doesn't imply
that obedience is what saves us,but true faith is gonna lead to
obedience to God's word.
Um, Christians are gonna loveother Christians, love other
believers, love the brothers andsisters of the body of Christ.
(28:00):
Number six, Christians are gonnaremain faithful.
They're gonna remain faithful.
We talk a lot, again, aboutdrifting around here, and um for
a Christian, you're gonna falterand fail, but you're gonna the
trajectory of your life is gonnabe that you remain faithful.
Um there's a verse in chaptertwo, verse 19, it says, They
(28:21):
went out from us, but they werenot of us.
For if they had been of us, theywould have continued with us.
But they went out that it mightbecome plain that they all are
not of us.
This is an important principle.
A Christian stays faithful.
And this verse, and this belief,the reason I said we need to be
(28:42):
bold in this belief, number six,that Christians remain faithful.
One of the great theologicalerrors that people believe is
that a Christian can lose theirsalvation.
I had a conversation with abrother recently who believes
this, and and I said, and thisis what I always want to
challenge people with.
What you're saying is that Godcan lose something.
(29:06):
That's the reality.
If God's the one that saves us,if we're saved by grace through
faith, if we were dead in oursin and he quickens us and
brings us to spiritual life andsaves us, then for me to lose my
salvation, it would have to behim losing that or him giving
that up.
And that is not in the characterof God and is certainly not
what's taught in Scripture.
(29:27):
And so a person who goes, whatJohn's saying in in 1 John 2.19,
they went out from us, but theywere not of us.
For if they had been of us, theywould have continued with us.
You got people in your life andyou're like, man, that guy used
to be a believer.
She used to be a true Christfollower, but she's she she's
not anymore.
(29:48):
And people might argue, see,that's evidence that a person
can lose their salvation.
They can walk away.
Because most people will say theway you lose your salvation is
you walk away or you turn awayand you walk away from the Lord.
What John is saying, oh no, no,they never were of us.
This reminds me of when Jesussaid, there's going to be people
that say, Lord, Lord, we didmighty works in your name.
(30:09):
We cast out demons and we didthis and we did that.
And Jesus is going to say,Depart from me, I never knew
you.
I never knew you.
Not depart from me, I knew you.
You were a Christian, but youturned away.
So now we're not friends, or nowI'm not your savior.
He says, I never knew you.
This is important.
It's so important.
I remember a guy one timestarting a debate with us.
(30:31):
Man, he was trying to arguebecause Snowbird was leading in
a ministry event, and this guywas one of the people that
worked within this ministry.
It was a non-denominationalministry, but they had some
pretty strong uh Arminian orcharismatic uh leanings.
And with that, uh they believedyou could lose your salvation.
(30:54):
And and I saw that theyleveraged that with students.
It was a student ministry event.
They leveraged it.
And what I mean by that is theyused that, they kind of held
that over kids' heads, like,hey, you need to get saved
again.
And um, or or hey, you need tobehave or you'll lose your
salvation.
It was it was a really distortedview of that.
(31:14):
But the guy, his argument wasthat he knew a guy who had been
a pastor, preacher, ministryleader who had done awesome
works.
He's like, man, I heard that guypreach and I saw him do awesome
things.
I know he was saved.
I know he was truly born of God.
And then he, and then he walkedaway.
And now he's a you know,whatever the guy was now doing,
(31:36):
you know, drug deal.
It was something crazy, like hedealing drugs out of the back of
a bar that he opened.
I mean, it was like this realcontrast to what the Christian
life would be.
And I just I took him to thisidea.
I was like, man, I he was nevertruly of us.
This says that he went outproving that he never was of us.
Um, and that's an importantprinciple.
(31:57):
So 1 John is a letter thatteaches strongly the principle,
I think, of eternal security orthe perseverance of the saints,
or once saved, always saved.
Real believers will continuewith Jesus because God is the
one who keeps them.
They're going to stay faithful.
Number seven, Christians don'tlove the world.
(32:20):
Now, you'll see this in versesfifteen to seventeen of chapter
two, first John two, fifteen toseventeen.
Do not love the world or thethings in the world.
If anyone loves the world, thelove of the Father is not in
him.
For all that is in the world,the desires of the flesh, the
desires of the eyes, and thepride of life is not from the
Father, but is from the world.
(32:40):
The world is passing away alongwith its desires, but whoever
does the will of God abidesforever.
Now, when we use the phrase theworld, we're talking about the
system that we live in, excuseme, that surrounds us that loves
sin and hates God.
The system that loves sin andhates God.
(33:02):
That's that's what we mean bythe world, quote unquote.
There's my air quotes, theworld.
So a Christian has to live inthe world, but we don't follow
the world's values.
I don't let the world determinemy value system.
John's teaching us this.
Don't let the world determinewhat's right and what's wrong
and what's high value for you.
God has determined that for thebeliever.
(33:25):
We love the world for what weoffer the world.
We don't love the world for whatthe world offers us.
What do I offer the world?
I offer the world Jesus.
I offer him the gospel.
What can I give to the world?
I can give the world the gospel.
And the Bible teaches us thatthe wor the world is passing
away, but God's word lastsforever.
(33:46):
The gospel is eternity.
So when I talk about loving theworld, I do need to love the
world as I see the world in needof something that I have, namely
the gospel and the hope that itbrings.
But I don't love the world forwhat the world might provide for
me.
Number eight, Christians testwhat they hear.
(34:06):
We'll link all this.
We'll link these notes.
I'll I'll have JB will link themin the in the episode notes.
Um, so you you can have this tenpoint, ten bullet points or
whatever.
Number eight, Christians testwhat they hear.
This is important.
Not everyone who talks about Godtells the truth.
Chapter 4, verse 1.
Beloved or beloved, do notbelieve every spirit, but test
(34:27):
the spirits to see whether theyare from God, for many false
prophets have gone out into theworld.
So John's going to warn usthere's a lot of bad false
teaching, and you need to beaware of it.
Test what you hear.
Um, the biggest test when itcomes to understanding whether
or not a person is truly fromthe Lord is what do they believe
(34:51):
about Jesus?
What do they what do they teachabout Jesus?
So for instance, you remember awhile back we had Josh Haskell
on here.
I referenced this often.
We had Josh Haskell on here fora couple episodes.
Josh grew up Mormon, and therewas a point where I'm like,
okay, what what is the big thingthat the Mormons teach and
(35:12):
believe that is so wrong?
And Josh, his answer was, well,what they believe about Jesus.
What they believe about Jesus,they believe that Jesus is not
fully and truly God.
Uh, he's not eternal.
You know, he had a beginningpoint, he was created by God.
So your belief about Jesusdetermines if you are a true
(35:34):
Christ follower.
And then for us, when we'retesting what we hear, I need to
listen to what somebody teachesabout Jesus.
And then maybe I'm listening tosomebody and they're giving
their their their maybe it's amessage and I feel like this
might not be a a true teacher,uh, you know, it might be a
false teacher, false prophet.
Or maybe I'm I'm readingsomebody or listening to
(35:57):
something.
I'm like, this does, this soundsoff.
Something doesn't feel rightabout this person.
And I've seen this happen a lotthrough the years with um with
teachers that start seem tostart strong and then they they
end up veering off.
You know, it goes way back tothat dude, Rob Bell, um, 20, 20
plus years ago.
Seemed to be such an effectiveteacher and communicator, and
(36:20):
then he started to teach thingsthat didn't align with
scripture.
So so that's the second thing.
So how do we test what we hear?
1 John 4, 1.
What is somebody teaching aboutJesus?
And then we test everythingthey're saying by scripture.
Does this align with scripture?
And Rob Bell's teaching startedto veer off from scripture.
(36:41):
That's the problem with JohnMark McMillan's recent comments
about the atonement that weaddressed a while back.
When you've got a guy, you'relike, man, I really like this
guy.
He's a good communicator.
This lady's a really goodteacher, writer, author.
They start to say things aboutJesus that aren't true or don't
align with scripture, or theystart to say things that don't
align with scripture as a whole.
(37:02):
Um, it doesn't matter if I'velistened to them and been
informed and shaped by theirteaching for years.
Now I got to go in a differentdirection.
Now they've they've made achoice that is revealed that
they are not a true teacher or atrue preacher or a true Christ
follower.
They're a false teacher.
And remember, false teacherstend to start off not as false
(37:25):
teachers.
That's what makes it so tricky.
Um, number nine, we're almostdone.
Christians are born of God.
Being born again is somethingthat God does.
It's not something that I do.
The idea of being born again,this goes back to, you know,
John records Jesus' meeting withum Nicodemus in John 3.
And so when a Christian is bornagain, this idea of new birth is
(37:49):
a it's it's a phrase that refersto salvation.
All Christians have been bornagain.
You cannot be a Christ followerif you're not born again.
Being born again means youidentify with Christ in his
death, burial, and resurrection.
You you confess that he is Lord,you repent of your sin.
You accept his free gift ofsalvation, recognizing that he
(38:15):
has paid the penalty for yoursin.
Uh in 1 John 3 9, John says thisno one born of God makes
practice of sinning, for God'sseed abides in him because he's
been born of God.
And then chapter 5, verse 1,everyone who believes that Jesus
is the Christ or the Messiah,the Savior, has been born of
(38:36):
God.
So that that born-again, newbirth terminology, John is
really big on that.
And so that's something thatstands out in John's letters and
in John's gospel.
And then last, number 10,Christians can know that they're
saved.
And I think, okay, if I wasgoing to give an overarching
theme, I saved this till number10.
(38:58):
If I was going to give anoverarching theme of 1 John for
me, it comes down to chapter, ifI, if I was going to sum it all
up into one point, it comes downto 1 John chapter 5, verse 13.
I write these things to you whobelieve in the name of the Son
of God.
So he says, I'm writing this toChristians, so that you may know
that you have eternal life.
(39:20):
Number 10, Christians can knowthat they're saved.
You can know that you know.
John wants believers to haveconfidence.
I don't know how many times I'veheard a guy, especially at a
student ministry event, try toconvince everybody in a room
that they're not truly saved.
You know, you've got to doubt.
If you're if you're not 100%sure, you're 100% lost.
If you're 99% sure, then you're100% lost or whatever.
(39:42):
Man, Christians are gonna havewe're human, you know.
We wrestle with doubt, westruggle with weaknesses, we we
falter and we fail.
And there's gonna be times ifyou're walking with Jesus where
you're gonna make mistakes andmess up and you're gonna go,
man, am I really, am I really aborn again Christian?
If so, why?
Do I keep doing this?
Or you might question, theremight be times where you
(40:03):
question, is God really who hesays he is, or you know,
whatever.
Anybody says, Oh no, man, ifyou're uh if you're following
Jesus, you're never gonnaquestion him or doubt him.
I don't know, man.
I don't know that that thatmight be true for some people,
but for most of us, there aregonna be times where we got to
press into it.
And so John's like, hey, followthese things and you'll know
(40:23):
that you know.
You can have confidence evenwhen you doubt.
I mean, at one point he says,even, hey, when if you doubt, or
when anyone doubts, we have anadvocate with the Father.
We have uh a Messiah, Savior,whose name is Jesus.
We have um the gospel that'sbeen revealed to us and made
clear to us.
(40:44):
You know, it there's uh we havea propitiation for our sin.
If if you doubt, press intothese things that you know to be
true.
And John gives believersconfidence in a few in a few
areas.
In chapter 5, verse 1, he talksabout faith, everyone who
believes that Jesus is theChrist, the word faith.
Um chapter 2, verse 3, he usesobedience.
(41:04):
By this we know we have come toknow him if we keep his
commandments.
I'd say there, do you have adesire to obey God's word?
That's evidence of yoursalvation.
Chapter 3, verse 14.
Um, we know that we have passedout of death into life because
we love brothers.
Love is a mark of a true Christfollower.
You have a love, this is adifferent kind of love.
(41:26):
It's a love that exists betweenbrothers and sisters in the
faith, and you feel that love.
And then chapter 4 and verse uh13, the spirit in us is changing
us.
Listen to what he says.
By this we know that we abide inhim and he in us because he's
given us his spirit.
The spirit of God producesfruit, seals us in our
salvation, and gives usconfidence.
(41:48):
So John wants you to know thatyou can know.
I can know that I know that Iknow that I'm saved.
And so these 10 things uh I praywill be helpful for you.
Um John teaches us that thosetruly born of God believe the
real Jesus.
They trust his finished work,they obey him, they love others,
they stay faithful.
And all of this, they do allthis because God is at work in
(42:09):
them.
That's why, and that's how, andJohn wants us to know these
things.
So you pray for us here as wekick off 2026.
This is a link, a little bit, alittle bit longer episode, I
know, but I wanted to give youan uh update and uh and a kind
of kick the year off, see wherewe're going.
Winter swow is in full swing,and this is what we're teaching
about and and and teachingthrough, and I'm excited about
(42:30):
it, and I'm excited about thethings that God's doing um at
Snowbird going into this year.
It's very exciting.
We'll do more some more updateshere at the beginning of the
year.
Uh I'll I'll also do an updateon our year-end, our 2025
year-end campaign andfundraiser.
And uh we're we're trying towe're trying to get in place for
(42:52):
um as soon as we can.
Um up on the hill, we built, youknow, we built six new cabins
last year.
Um, and those cabins were builton on the year-end campaign last
year, part of part of that wasum we got the water finally, I
guess let me let me go ahead andclose with a little bit of of
(43:12):
development construction update.
Well, I'm already doing it, solet me just finish that way.
Um, after three years of workingto get the water line uh taken
care of to get ourinfrastructure rolling so we
could expand camp, and we hadpeople give to this project
three years ago, and we justwe've been hung up waiting on
the government, you know, is howit goes, waiting on the state,
(43:34):
and God finally has has madethat happen.
So it's done.
The project is done.
We had to run, we had the townhad to bring, the state and the
town had to bring a water mainfrom the town of Andrews to our
property.
We already had that water, butit was like a small two-inch
line, and we need to we need aline four times that size to get
(43:55):
the volume of water we need fordevelopment and growth moving
forward.
And so um that's done.
It's in the ground, and we nowhave that coming onto our
property.
So now we can start to grow anddevelop and expand.
And what we're working on rightnow is a big new bathhouse,
showers, bathrooms, laundry, allof that up on the hill where our
(44:16):
staff live, but also where wehouse um over 100 camp or
students in the um in thesummer.
And so about 150 people willstay up there.
And as it as it has been, those150 people have to walk a really
long way, a pretty good distanceto get to bathrooms and showers.
(44:36):
And then when they get there, umthere's there's not enough, you
gotta stand in line.
It's just a real pain.
So it's gonna enable us.
We we we added uh 50 beds, 50students a week this past
summer.
Um now we'll be able to servethose students so that they can
have a good experience duringtheir week at camp.
(44:57):
So that's the project that'sgoing on right now.
Um I'm very excited about that.
It's it's it's growth.
It's growth and progress.
And uh that's man, that's whatwe want.
That's what we need.
We need to continue to grow andprogress and move forward, and
that's happening.
Um, excited about that.
So we got water, we got what weneed to develop and grow.
Our team is clearing land now,and construction will start
(45:19):
soon.
I don't know when we'll get itdone.
The goal had been to get it doneby this this upcoming summer,
uh, but that was when we weretrying to get started
construction in October.
We actually ended up two monthsbehind on starting that
construction, which you don'thave to be good at math to know.
Two months, that's that's 70% ofyour summer.
So I don't know.
We'll see.
(45:39):
We'll see if we're able to getget that done at least for part
of the summer.
I don't know.
I I don't have a lot ofconfidence that we will, but the
progress will be evident andpeople will be able to see it
when they're here.
And who knows, maybe we can.
Maybe the Lord gives us auniquely dry winter and we're
able to get a lot of progress onconstruction.
It's just so wet and cold andrainy here in the winter, so
it's hard.
(46:00):
But uh trusting the Lord withthat and uh lots going on, lots
to be excited about.
Um I'm super excited, and I hopeyou are too.
Thanks for listening to NoSanity Required.
We we appreciate your feedbackon this content.
This this podcast just keepsgrowing like crazy, and it's
mind-blowing to me how God'susing it and spreading it.
And uh the last thing I'll sayis this going into 2026, we are
(46:22):
finally going to be producing NoSanity Required merchandise that
can be purchased through thegear store at Snowbird
Outfitters.
And uh a lot of people haveasked about it and are excited
about it, and I'm excited tobring it to you.
You guys are awesome.
The fact that y'all listen tothis and and care about what
what we have to say um in interms of your journey with with
(46:43):
within the Christian faith andfollowing Jesus in life and
trying to striving to live agodly life, honoring the Lord,
and that this would be aresource and a tool that would
help you with that.
It's it's very meaningful to us,and I'm just thankful.
So love and appreciate you, andwe'll see you next week on No
Sanity Required.
SPEAKER_00 (47:02):
Thanks for listening to No Sanity Required.
Please take a moment tosubscribe and leave a rating.
It really helps.
Visit us at swoutfitters.com tosee all of our programming and
resources.
And we'll see you next week onNo Sanity Required.
Hey, in this week's episode, we're going to give you
kind of an overview of the studythat we're doing at Winter Swow.
I know a lot of our listenerswill be coming to Winter Swow
over the next month or so, overthe next few weeks.
Winter Swow is an event thattakes place in January and
February at Snowbird.
And the first one actually uhwe're in the middle of it right
(00:21):
now.
Uh it just started uh a coupledays ago, and uh we'll we'll run
multiple winter conferences umthroughout the months of January
and February.
We actually start it in Decemberuh just because that break
between Christmas and New Year,um, that's when students are out
of school.
So we run a couple of eventsthere.
(00:42):
We're in the middle of thatright now, and uh oh man, I I
love winter swow.
It's for us, it's awesomebecause uh we we have been off.
The last event that we did atSnowbird was the marriage
conference, and that was at theend of October.
So we did three fall retreats inOctober.
We had three student mysteryevents the first three weekends
(01:04):
of October, then a marriageconference, and then November,
December pretty much take off.
And so I'm looking forward tocatching up a little bit, just
giving you an update on kind ofhow things have gone at the end
of the year here at Snowbird,uh, an update on that, and then
kind of where we're going forwinter swow.
And then we're gonna walkthrough an overview of First
John today, give you the main,I'm gonna give you 10 bullet
(01:28):
points that are sort of anoverview of First John that
we're gonna be covering at ourwinter swow.
If you come to Winter Swow, thenyou're gonna get uh you're gonna
get this content and in teachingformat over the next uh we'll
we'll do it in five or sixsessions.
I can't remember now.
Five or six sessions.
It's five sessions typically.
Some students, uh some somegroups stay an extra evening and
(01:51):
get a sixth session.
But um, yeah, I'll give you anoverview of that and uh and give
you an update on what's going onhere end of the year at
Snowbird.
How do we wrap uh the calendaryear up and kind of what we're
excited about going into 2026?
Welcome to No Sanity Required,y'all.
SPEAKER_00 (02:11):
Welcome to No Sanity Required from the Ministry of
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters,a podcast about the Bible,
culture, and stories from aroundthe globe.
SPEAKER_01 (02:21):
Before I get into this, I gotta I gotta apologize.
Um the episode I uh I I justrecorded um an episode that is
has not dropped yet, but I'mapologizing ahead of time.
Um it's gonna be kind of a firstof the year episode, and I I I
(02:44):
recorded it in my study, andI've got a table that uh it's
it's a homemade stand-up table.
It's the one where you stand infront of it, you can't sit down.
It doesn't, it's not electronic,it doesn't rise and raise and
lower.
It's just a table that you'vegot to stand at because it's too
tall.
It's a it's like a bar.
And it's squeaky.
I didn't realize it was squeaky.
(03:04):
I kept leaning on it, and then Iwent back and I was listening to
the episode, and you can hearthis squeaky noise the whole
time.
I feel terrible uh because thisis not where I typically record.
But anyway, um apologies aheadof time for that.
Uh but but I want to I want totell y'all kind of how our year
ended.
Man, we had an awesome year uhat Snowbird in 2025.
(03:28):
It was amazing.
And we always say that, we throwaround those two words, awesome
and amazing, a lot.
I know.
I I use those words a lot in myvocabulary.
We use them a lot at Snowbird.
But but it the fact is, 2025, wesaw the Lord do so many awesome
things, and we went, not gonnalie, we went through some some
transition as a ministry.
(03:48):
We lost some people, we had somefolks leave um uh and go on to
other things.
Uh excited for for for some ofthose people and what God's
doing.
Dawson Dickey is uh who servedat Snowbird so faithfully over
the last few years and hasbecome a really kind of a
fixture at Snowbird.
Dawson has moved on.
(04:09):
He's uh an associate pastor inTennessee.
I'm excited for him.
That was, you know, Dawson'scalling and dream was to be a
pastor, and he still wants to dothat.
I think ultimately he'd love toplan a church or do a
revitalization.
So this was a good next step forhim.
But I bring Austin's name up tosay at the end of the year, as
everybody was praying for Greg,my son-in-law, and my daughter
(04:31):
Kilby, and and uh in theirsituation, we were also praying
for Dawson's family.
They were in a terrible carcrash.
This was back uh, this wouldhave been like right at the end
of November, going intoDecember.
I think the wreck happenedaround November 29th, maybe
30th, something like that.
(04:52):
But it was a bad wreck.
And uh Dawson's dad, who's a agood and close friend of this
ministry, uh, man, he he was hewas severely injured, uh, in a
coma, uh head injury, so a lotof prayers for the the Dickey
family.
Um But it was it was kind ofcrazy having Dawson having left
(05:16):
Snowbird just a couple monthsprior, and then this happened.
It it I don't know if you everhad this experience where you
want to support somebody andencourage them, but how do you
do that when you're doing itfrom a distance?
And so um we've just beenpraying for the Dickey family
and for David, Dawson's dad,just for his healing and and
(05:36):
restored health, and um wouldask you to also pray for them.
But uh, Miss Dawson, excited forwhere he's headed, what God's
doing in his life.
And so this is this is all allthat to say, this is a
transitional period at Snowbird.
And I love transition because alot of people I think are scared
of transition and uh and thenother people are obsessed with
(05:59):
it.
So what you end up with is somepeople are so fixated on not
letting anything change thatthey get stuck, it's easy to get
stuck in a rut.
Other people can't stay put morethan you know a short period of
time, and it seems like they'reconstantly bouncing around and
on to the next thing.
You see this, we've just comethrough the college football
season.
We're kind of in uh at the tailend of it here with the playoffs
(06:22):
and all that, but uh what thecoach in carousel, you see a
coach that can't stay put.
There's uh there's a guy namedLane Kiffin who a lot of you
know uh and are sports fans,especially college football
fans, but some of you are not.
But Lane Kiffin's a guy, he's areal controversial figure in the
college football coaching world.
(06:42):
And part of what makes himcontroversial is he he doesn't
stay put.
He he moves on to the nextthing, and some people say,
well, it's the money or it's theprestige, or he's just a
controversial person.
He loves stirring the pot.
I don't know, I have no idea.
But I do know that a lot ofpeople, they don't they have a
hard time sticking to somethingfor a long period of time, and
(07:05):
and and while other people uhdon't want any change to come.
And so when I say I I getexcited about a period of
transition, what I mean is thereare times where whether it's in
your personal life, yourbusiness, your ministry, where
growth reaches a point wherethere has to be some change that
(07:28):
happens.
You've grown to a point wherethings won't work the way
they've always worked.
Or, you know, you've you'vegotta you've gotta grow with the
times or expand your vision,your dream, uh, you know,
something like that.
We were sitting in the snowbirdmedia office uh not long ago.
This was uh a couple weeks ago,and kind of reflecting on the
end of the year and thedirection we're taking some
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things.
And we had just had our snowbirdChristmas party.
We have a staff, like an alumChristmas party every year in
the middle of December.
And so we had that Christmasparty back on, I think it was
December 13th, maybe.
And uh it was so good to see aton of our former staff and so
(08:12):
many people.
We had a we had a group ofpeople come in that were that it
was the 10-year anniversary ofthe first year that we did the
Snowbird Institute, theleadership institute.
And we had uh several folks comein that were part of that
institute.
Um two couples that I know offor sure came in that were part
(08:32):
of that institute, and they hadmet and married in that
institute.
Um and then another uh gal whowas here with her husband, he
wasn't part of the institute,but she had been.
It was just cool seeing peoplehadn't seen in a while, and and
reflecting and remembering back.
And uh we were we were having aconversation like the Monday or
Tuesday, I think it was theMonday after the Christmas
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party.
We're up there in the mediaoffice, and somebody, I think
Austin Scott was saying thatthere were a lot of people
saying that snowbird, you know,oh man, I miss I missed when
snowbird was like this or whenit was like that, and they were
thinking back to the quoteunquote good old days, and they
were saying, Man, it used to bewe used to do things this way
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and we used to do things thatway.
And a lot of that was beingtalked about because of some
skits that were done at theChristmas party that were like
throwbacks to, I mean, earlysnowbird days.
There was one skit that was athrowback to the early 2000s,
and one that was a throwback to,you know, 2015, and one that was
a th, you know, and then likesome references to some
different periods in snowbirdhistory.
(09:36):
And somebody was saying, man,it's changed.
It's not the same.
And I was explaining to ourmedia team, of course it's
changed.
When you grow, you change.
And and and people tend tonostalgia is a tricky, a very
deceptive thing.
Nostalgia can rob you of the joyof what God's doing, it can rob
(10:00):
you of purpose for the future,it can take away drive and
energy and vision, and it cankind of trick you and lull you
into this idea that, man, therewas a time where things were so
good.
Listen, I want to explainsomething that I think is an
important principle.
The good old days were not asgood as you think they were.
You, you're, you tend to, I dothis.
(10:22):
We tend to remember somethingnot exactly the way that it was.
And when you're growing as aperson or you're growing as a
ministry or you're growing yourbusiness or your church, it's
easy to think back to whatthings used to be and long for
that.
But I'm gonna tell yousomething.
As much as I loved Snowbird in2008, Snowbird in 2002, snowbird
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in 2014, I'm just telling you,Snowbird in 2025 is the best
version of Snowbird that there'sever been.
Why?
Because it's a ministry thatjust like a person is being
sanctified and matured andgrowth is is constant and
steady.
And so as we grow as people andas this grows as a ministry,
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it's easy to look back and missthe quote unquote good old days.
But the reality is, Paul said,um, he said, looking ahead, I
don't look back.
I look ahead.
He says, he says, I'm can I'mconsidering the prize that's in
front of me, and I'm strivingtoward that prize.
We're at Snowbird, we'restriving toward the prize that's
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been set before us.
And I don't want to look back inthe sense that I look back and
long for the good old days.
I want to look back andcelebrate what God's done.
I want to look back and havereflection on those wonderful
memories.
I won't shoot, I want to sitaround with people and look
back, and we all do this andlaugh and remember things that
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were funny or remember thingsthat were hard or remember, you
know, seasons where we saw Godmove.
But the reality is if you're achild of God who is being
sanctified, conformed to theimage of Christ, or if you're in
a church that is growing inobedience to the Lord, then the
best days are always whereyou're at and what's coming
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ahead.
It might be hard times.
You might be in the middle of atrial, you might be in the
middle of something verydifficult.
But I'm just telling you, thenature of sanctification is that
we're always growing more intothe image of Jesus.
This goes for ministries, itgoes for people.
And at Snowbird, I man, I canlike I can look at pictures from
2003 and just go down memorylane, and I love it.
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It's wonderful.
I just, man, I I and there is apart of me that longs for those
days.
I'd love to go back and redo it,you know.
But that doesn't mean it wasbetter then than it is now.
It just means God did things inmy life during that period that
I now look back on with fondnessand with good memories.
And so we're sitting around inthe in the media office and I
(13:00):
was explaining to these guys,hey, 10 years from now, y'all
are going to have the tendencyto want to look back, oh man,
2025.
Remember that?
It was the best days atSnowbird.
Well, it's not.
Lord will, in 2035, we'll beexperiencing more growth, more
excitement, more energy, morelives being impacted, more, you
know, more vision.
And we'll look back at 2025 withfondness, and we'll look back at
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2010 with fondness and 2000 withfondness, but God's always
moving and doing things andgrowing our ministry and growing
you and me.
And so don't get duped into thegood old days.
Now, I know there are somepeople that um have gone through
great loss.
You've lost a loved one, you'velost a child, you've lost a
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spouse, and that's a differentsituation for you.
And I want to be sensitive tothat.
You look back to a time wherethat loved one was still here
and you were sharing lifetogether, man.
That's hard.
That's hard.
But that's where we have to thenlook forward to the fact that
one day we'll be reunitedbecause of what Christ has done.
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Now, again, maybe you're lookingback at the loss of a loved one
who didn't know the Lord.
And and that's hard because youwonder, will I ever have peace
about where this person is?
So all of this to say, as aChristian, don't get caught up
in looking back and and and andsort of allowing that to stunt
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your growth moving forward, bothas a person and a and as a
ministry or a church orwhatever.
We always got to be lookingforward.
Um there there are man, thereare ministry partners at
Snowbird that I miss.
They're now out of it, orthey've moved on to something
else, or staff members thatserved here that I wish they
could come back and serve.
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The point being, um for thebeliever, God is always working
and moving and growing andsanctifying.
And so enjoy that.
Let the Lord um let the Lordshape you into the man or the
woman he wants you to be, andlet him shape your ministry into
the mission and ministry that hewants it to be.
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That's what we're striving forat Snowbird.
And so we we came to the end ofthe year recognizing that, man,
we're in a transitional phaseand period.
We got some some new visions,some new dreams, some new ideas,
some new energy.
And I'm excited about that.
As we go into 2026, I'm soexcited about for instance, let
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me let me just share with youone team I'm super excited
about.
I'm very excited about AustinScott's team.
He's he is leading a team inthat media and production room
that is a lot of new faces, alot of people that have stepped
into positions that six monthsago they were not in, didn't
envision being in.
But it's a team with this newpersonality and energy that I'm
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excited about.
I'm so thankful for thedifferent the different phases
of development in thatdepartment and that program
here.
But I'm excited for the daysahead.
And if you came to, if you cameto the Fall Retreat at Snowbird,
uh the feedback we got on FallRetreat was so amazing.
And Austin worded it this way.
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He said, people were saying itfelt like a new a new era at
Snowbird that had the feel oflike retro snowbird.
If you go back, if you came toSnowbird in, you know, in the
2000s and the things we would dowith the redneck games and the
rodeo and the craziness of twoof the 2000s here, it had that
feel, but but even betterbecause there's more resources,
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more creativity, more uh more towork with.
And Fall Retreat was so fun, andthe feedback we got was so
great.
So I'm excited about the thingsthat are ahead in 2026 because
Austin's leading a team that'svery dynamic.
Um it's gonna sound different,look different.
It you're gonna see new faces onthe stage, but you're also gonna
see familiar faces on the stage.
(17:07):
I'm super excited and encouragedby the leadership of that young
staff in there, that that 19 to25 group that is sort of shaping
the the culture and personalityof Snowbird right now.
And it's it's very excitingbecause you still got the old,
you got the old guys here, theold guys and gals.
We're gonna keep, you know,we're gonna keep this thing
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rooted until the next generationof old guys comes along and and
continues to keep it rooted.
And so right now I'm excitedabout 2026 because you've got
this dynamic of new energy, newvision, new direction, but
there's also the anchor that'snot gonna let us move too far
off of who God's called us to beand what God's called us to do.
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It's exciting times.
Uh so what I want to do uh withthat update is uh I want to I
want to tell you that uh as aswinter swow is clicking along,
we're studying through 1 John,and I want to give you the the
the big ideas of 1 John thatwe're gonna be studying.
Whether you're coming here foran event or you're gonna when
once we release all the teachingcontent when winter swow is
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over, you'll be able to listenthrough the teach the teaching
sessions.
Let me give you what what we'regonna talk about in 1 John.
There's big ideas of 1 John.
The first big idea in 1 John isuh 1 John looks at who Jesus is,
who Jesus is.
In the first two verses of 1John, we've got these sort of
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statements of deity, that Jesusis truly God and he's truly
human.
And John is the the writer andthe apostle that focused on
that.
When you read through John'sgospel, the same guy wrote
John's gospel as wrote 1 John.
When you read through John'sGospel, you've got the deity of
Christ and the humanity ofChrist on on full display.
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And uh and John does a reallygood job of explaining that.
Um and so his his first letterstarts off by declaring and sort
of reflecting on who Jesus is.
He's truly and fully God, andhe's truly and fully human.
And you see that in the firsttwo verses of the book.
Listen to how these these twoverses word this.
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Uh, that which was from thebeginning, so that's Jesus.
John also writes in the gospel,in the beginning was the word,
and the word was with God, andthe word was God.
That which was from thebeginning.
So John's gospel and John'sletters start kind of in the
same same takeoff point.
That which was from thebeginning, which we've heard,
which we've seen with our eyes.
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So he's saying the the eternalone has become physically human,
and we've seen him.
We've talked to him, we'vetouched him with our hands.
Um and and so you've got in thefirst verse this idea that Jesus
is both God eternal, but he'salso he has become human.
The life was made manifest.
Manifest, so the human life ofJesus was made manifest.
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It was revealed to us, and we'veseen it, and we testify it and
proclaim to you the eternal lifewhich was with the Father and
was made manifest to us.
So in those verses, you've gotthe fact that Jesus is fully and
truly God, eternal, everlasting,but he's come and become human
and revealed himself to us inhuman form.
The next thing John's going totalk about is what Jesus did.
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What Jesus did.
Now, before I go on, the reasonI want to give you this is not
only to sort of prime yourtheological pump and align you
with what we're getting ready totalk through in winter swow, but
I want you to think about this.
I want you to be encouraged thisweek.
As a Christian, these are 10things that you need to believe
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and be bold in that belief, touse the phrase that was given to
me in teaching this at TrinityChristian Academy recently.
Adam Vinson had given me thisidea that, hey, bold in belief,
that's how we describe theseoverview things and ideas from 1
John.
So I want you to be bold inbelieving these things.
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Are you bold in believing thatJesus was truly and fully God?
Are you bold in believing thathe became human and that he
lived in a real human form andworked and did the ministry that
he did and died and rose again?
And yeah, I want to be bold inthat.
I'm unashamed of that.
Paul says, I'm unashamed of thegospel.
What else should we be bold in?
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The second thing is we should bebold in our belief and
confidence in what Jesus did.
What did Jesus do?
And why should we be bold inbelieving it?
Well, in 1 John 2, verse 2, itsays that he's our propitiation.
He's the propitiation for oursins.
That means he took God's wrathfor our sins.
Jesus died on the cross underthe weight of my sin, bearing
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the wrath of God toward my sin.
Jesus did that.
So who is Jesus?
I need to be bold in my beliefthat Jesus is truly and fully
God and truly and fully human.
And what did Jesus do?
He died in my place.
He provided salvation, but hedidn't just provide it.
He did it specifically bybearing the wrath of God.
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He accepted the wrath of God formy sin.
He died for my sin, though hehimself had never known sin.
Number three, Christians stillsin, but they don't love sin.
This is an important belief forthe believer.
This is something that uh thatJohn teaches that I'm thankful
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for that as a Christian, I I'mI'm gonna I'm gonna make
mistakes.
I'm gonna still sin.
He I think he says it this wayin chapter one, verse eight.
He says, if we say we have nosin, we deceive ourselves, and
the truth is not in us.
If we say we have not sinned, wemake him a liar.
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And somebody will say, Well,that's saying but that before
you became a Christian, you werea sinner, and to not recognize
that would you'd not get to apoint where you were ready to
receive salvation.
He says, if we have no sin, andthen later he says, now listen
to this.
So let me think how to how toword this.
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Somebody that would say, John'sreference to the Christian as a
sinner in 1 John 1, 8 and 9, ifwe say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, is followedwith, if we confess our sins,
he's faithful and just toforgive us, so he'll forgive us
of our sins.
And in verse 10, if we say we'venot sinned, we make him a liar,
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and his word is not in us.
People will argue and say thoseare those are verses referring
to uh before you were aChristian.
You have to recognize that youwere a sinner.
But he said, if God's word is inyou, you'll recognize that sin
is in you as well.
The relationship between theword of God in a believer's life
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and sin in a believer's life isthat the word of God will shine
a light of exposure onto yoursin.
And then in chapter two, verseone, my little children, I'm
writing you these things to youso that you may not sin.
But if anyone does sin, we havean advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous.
Now, this is the verse thatreally supports, hey, as a
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Christian, you're going to makea mistake, you're going to sin,
you're going to falter, you'regoing to fail, because he says,
My little children, this is aword that John uses, a phrase
that John uses to refer toChristians.
So he's saying, Hey, Christian,when you sin, Jesus will
advocate for you.
He'll speak for you before theFather.
So that's an important thing tobelieve that John is teaching.
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Christians still sin, but theydon't love sin.
Next, Christians obey God.
Their life is marked byobedience, not sin.
Doesn't mean you won't makemistakes, but 1 John chapter 2,
right after he talks aboutsinning and making mistakes and
faltering and failing, he saysthis: By this we know that we
have come to know him if we keephis commandments.
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So following in obedience to theLord, we're going to be marked
by obedience to his word and tohis commandments.
True faith will lead to a lifethat is changed.
And the evidence of that changedlife is going to be the way that
I obey the Lord.
I obey his word, even when Idon't do it perfectly.
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Number five, Christians loveother believers.
John does a great job of talkingabout this in 1 John, the
relationship that Christianshave with each other.
Chapter 3, verse 14, he says, Weknow that we have passed out of
death into life because we lovethe brothers.
If you have a love for otherChristians, that's evidence that
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you are spiritually alive.
Now, to the contrary, he says,everyone who hates his brother
is a murderer, and you know thatno murderer has eternal life
abiding in him.
Remember when Jesus said if youhate someone, it's like, it's
like committing murder.
And then what John's doing ishe's saying, Yeah, and if you
are a murderer, you don't haveeternal life in you because you
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wouldn't be capable of murder ifyou did.
This is this word murder is astrong word.
It's not the idea of a policeofficer shooting someone who's,
you know, to protect human lifeor a soldier in battle.
This is this is talking aboutmurder as we know it according
to our law, the malicious takingof another person's life.
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It's premeditated, it's it's uhit's it's meaningless or
purposeless, um, and it's evil.
It's not the same thing asself-defense or a war fighting
uh, you know, for a just causeor something like that.
That's controversial, I know,saying that, but that's just
facts.
Facts is facts.
God's love for us teaches us howto love others.
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First John 4 um shows us thatGod's love towards us is the
love that we receive and then inturn love others.
Beloved, let us love oneanother, for love is from God.
And whoever has been born of Godknows God, is going to love
others.
So we love each other because ofthe love that God has for us.
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So let me recap the first fivethings that we need to be bold
and believing as we study 1John.
We need to be bold in our beliefof who Jesus is.
We need to be bold in our beliefof what Jesus has done.
We need to be bold in our beliefthat Christians are gonna sin
and falter and fail, but they'renot gonna love their sin or be a
slave to it.
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Um, number four, Christians aregonna live lives of obedience to
God.
Doesn't mean you're gonna alwaysbe perfect, and it doesn't imply
that obedience is what saves us,but true faith is gonna lead to
obedience to God's word.
Um, Christians are gonna loveother Christians, love other
believers, love the brothers andsisters of the body of Christ.
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Number six, Christians are gonnaremain faithful.
They're gonna remain faithful.
We talk a lot, again, aboutdrifting around here, and um for
a Christian, you're gonna falterand fail, but you're gonna the
trajectory of your life is gonnabe that you remain faithful.
Um there's a verse in chaptertwo, verse 19, it says, They
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went out from us, but they werenot of us.
For if they had been of us, theywould have continued with us.
But they went out that it mightbecome plain that they all are
not of us.
This is an important principle.
A Christian stays faithful.
And this verse, and this belief,the reason I said we need to be
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bold in this belief, number six,that Christians remain faithful.
One of the great theologicalerrors that people believe is
that a Christian can lose theirsalvation.
I had a conversation with abrother recently who believes
this, and and I said, and thisis what I always want to
challenge people with.
What you're saying is that Godcan lose something.
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That's the reality.
If God's the one that saves us,if we're saved by grace through
faith, if we were dead in oursin and he quickens us and
brings us to spiritual life andsaves us, then for me to lose my
salvation, it would have to behim losing that or him giving
that up.
And that is not in the characterof God and is certainly not
what's taught in Scripture.
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And so a person who goes, whatJohn's saying in in 1 John 2.19,
they went out from us, but theywere not of us.
For if they had been of us, theywould have continued with us.
You got people in your life andyou're like, man, that guy used
to be a believer.
She used to be a true Christfollower, but she's she she's
not anymore.
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And people might argue, see,that's evidence that a person
can lose their salvation.
They can walk away.
Because most people will say theway you lose your salvation is
you walk away or you turn awayand you walk away from the Lord.
What John is saying, oh no, no,they never were of us.
This reminds me of when Jesussaid, there's going to be people
that say, Lord, Lord, we didmighty works in your name.
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We cast out demons and we didthis and we did that.
And Jesus is going to say,Depart from me, I never knew
you.
I never knew you.
Not depart from me, I knew you.
You were a Christian, but youturned away.
So now we're not friends, or nowI'm not your savior.
He says, I never knew you.
This is important.
It's so important.
I remember a guy one timestarting a debate with us.
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Man, he was trying to arguebecause Snowbird was leading in
a ministry event, and this guywas one of the people that
worked within this ministry.
It was a non-denominationalministry, but they had some
pretty strong uh Arminian orcharismatic uh leanings.
And with that, uh they believedyou could lose your salvation.
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And and I saw that theyleveraged that with students.
It was a student ministry event.
They leveraged it.
And what I mean by that is theyused that, they kind of held
that over kids' heads, like,hey, you need to get saved
again.
And um, or or hey, you need tobehave or you'll lose your
salvation.
It was it was a really distortedview of that.
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But the guy, his argument wasthat he knew a guy who had been
a pastor, preacher, ministryleader who had done awesome
works.
He's like, man, I heard that guypreach and I saw him do awesome
things.
I know he was saved.
I know he was truly born of God.
And then he, and then he walkedaway.
And now he's a you know,whatever the guy was now doing,
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you know, drug deal.
It was something crazy, like hedealing drugs out of the back of
a bar that he opened.
I mean, it was like this realcontrast to what the Christian
life would be.
And I just I took him to thisidea.
I was like, man, I he was nevertruly of us.
This says that he went outproving that he never was of us.
Um, and that's an importantprinciple.
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So 1 John is a letter thatteaches strongly the principle,
I think, of eternal security orthe perseverance of the saints,
or once saved, always saved.
Real believers will continuewith Jesus because God is the
one who keeps them.
They're going to stay faithful.
Number seven, Christians don'tlove the world.
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Now, you'll see this in versesfifteen to seventeen of chapter
two, first John two, fifteen toseventeen.
Do not love the world or thethings in the world.
If anyone loves the world, thelove of the Father is not in
him.
For all that is in the world,the desires of the flesh, the
desires of the eyes, and thepride of life is not from the
Father, but is from the world.
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The world is passing away alongwith its desires, but whoever
does the will of God abidesforever.
Now, when we use the phrase theworld, we're talking about the
system that we live in, excuseme, that surrounds us that loves
sin and hates God.
The system that loves sin andhates God.
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That's that's what we mean bythe world, quote unquote.
There's my air quotes, theworld.
So a Christian has to live inthe world, but we don't follow
the world's values.
I don't let the world determinemy value system.
John's teaching us this.
Don't let the world determinewhat's right and what's wrong
and what's high value for you.
God has determined that for thebeliever.
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We love the world for what weoffer the world.
We don't love the world for whatthe world offers us.
What do I offer the world?
I offer the world Jesus.
I offer him the gospel.
What can I give to the world?
I can give the world the gospel.
And the Bible teaches us thatthe wor the world is passing
away, but God's word lastsforever.
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The gospel is eternity.
So when I talk about loving theworld, I do need to love the
world as I see the world in needof something that I have, namely
the gospel and the hope that itbrings.
But I don't love the world forwhat the world might provide for
me.
Number eight, Christians testwhat they hear.
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We'll link all this.
We'll link these notes.
I'll I'll have JB will link themin the in the episode notes.
Um, so you you can have this tenpoint, ten bullet points or
whatever.
Number eight, Christians testwhat they hear.
This is important.
Not everyone who talks about Godtells the truth.
Chapter 4, verse 1.
Beloved or beloved, do notbelieve every spirit, but test
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the spirits to see whether theyare from God, for many false
prophets have gone out into theworld.
So John's going to warn usthere's a lot of bad false
teaching, and you need to beaware of it.
Test what you hear.
Um, the biggest test when itcomes to understanding whether
or not a person is truly fromthe Lord is what do they believe
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about Jesus?
What do they what do they teachabout Jesus?
So for instance, you remember awhile back we had Josh Haskell
on here.
I referenced this often.
We had Josh Haskell on here fora couple episodes.
Josh grew up Mormon, and therewas a point where I'm like,
okay, what what is the big thingthat the Mormons teach and
(35:12):
believe that is so wrong?
And Josh, his answer was, well,what they believe about Jesus.
What they believe about Jesus,they believe that Jesus is not
fully and truly God.
Uh, he's not eternal.
You know, he had a beginningpoint, he was created by God.
So your belief about Jesusdetermines if you are a true
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Christ follower.
And then for us, when we'retesting what we hear, I need to
listen to what somebody teachesabout Jesus.
And then maybe I'm listening tosomebody and they're giving
their their their maybe it's amessage and I feel like this
might not be a a true teacher,uh, you know, it might be a
false teacher, false prophet.
Or maybe I'm I'm readingsomebody or listening to
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something.
I'm like, this does, this soundsoff.
Something doesn't feel rightabout this person.
And I've seen this happen a lotthrough the years with um with
teachers that start seem tostart strong and then they they
end up veering off.
You know, it goes way back tothat dude, Rob Bell, um, 20, 20
plus years ago.
Seemed to be such an effectiveteacher and communicator, and
(36:20):
then he started to teach thingsthat didn't align with
scripture.
So so that's the second thing.
So how do we test what we hear?
1 John 4, 1.
What is somebody teaching aboutJesus?
And then we test everythingthey're saying by scripture.
Does this align with scripture?
And Rob Bell's teaching startedto veer off from scripture.
(36:41):
That's the problem with JohnMark McMillan's recent comments
about the atonement that weaddressed a while back.
When you've got a guy, you'relike, man, I really like this
guy.
He's a good communicator.
This lady's a really goodteacher, writer, author.
They start to say things aboutJesus that aren't true or don't
align with scripture, or theystart to say things that don't
align with scripture as a whole.
(37:02):
Um, it doesn't matter if I'velistened to them and been
informed and shaped by theirteaching for years.
Now I got to go in a differentdirection.
Now they've they've made achoice that is revealed that
they are not a true teacher or atrue preacher or a true Christ
follower.
They're a false teacher.
And remember, false teacherstend to start off not as false
(37:25):
teachers.
That's what makes it so tricky.
Um, number nine, we're almostdone.
Christians are born of God.
Being born again is somethingthat God does.
It's not something that I do.
The idea of being born again,this goes back to, you know,
John records Jesus' meeting withum Nicodemus in John 3.
And so when a Christian is bornagain, this idea of new birth is
(37:49):
a it's it's a phrase that refersto salvation.
All Christians have been bornagain.
You cannot be a Christ followerif you're not born again.
Being born again means youidentify with Christ in his
death, burial, and resurrection.
You you confess that he is Lord,you repent of your sin.
You accept his free gift ofsalvation, recognizing that he
(38:15):
has paid the penalty for yoursin.
Uh in 1 John 3 9, John says thisno one born of God makes
practice of sinning, for God'sseed abides in him because he's
been born of God.
And then chapter 5, verse 1,everyone who believes that Jesus
is the Christ or the Messiah,the Savior, has been born of
(38:36):
God.
So that that born-again, newbirth terminology, John is
really big on that.
And so that's something thatstands out in John's letters and
in John's gospel.
And then last, number 10,Christians can know that they're
saved.
And I think, okay, if I wasgoing to give an overarching
theme, I saved this till number10.
(38:58):
If I was going to give anoverarching theme of 1 John for
me, it comes down to chapter, ifI, if I was going to sum it all
up into one point, it comes downto 1 John chapter 5, verse 13.
I write these things to you whobelieve in the name of the Son
of God.
So he says, I'm writing this toChristians, so that you may know
that you have eternal life.
(39:20):
Number 10, Christians can knowthat they're saved.
You can know that you know.
John wants believers to haveconfidence.
I don't know how many times I'veheard a guy, especially at a
student ministry event, try toconvince everybody in a room
that they're not truly saved.
You know, you've got to doubt.
If you're if you're not 100%sure, you're 100% lost.
If you're 99% sure, then you're100% lost or whatever.
(39:42):
Man, Christians are gonna havewe're human, you know.
We wrestle with doubt, westruggle with weaknesses, we we
falter and we fail.
And there's gonna be times ifyou're walking with Jesus where
you're gonna make mistakes andmess up and you're gonna go,
man, am I really, am I really aborn again Christian?
If so, why?
Do I keep doing this?
Or you might question, theremight be times where you
(40:03):
question, is God really who hesays he is, or you know,
whatever.
Anybody says, Oh no, man, ifyou're uh if you're following
Jesus, you're never gonnaquestion him or doubt him.
I don't know, man.
I don't know that that thatmight be true for some people,
but for most of us, there aregonna be times where we got to
press into it.
And so John's like, hey, followthese things and you'll know
(40:23):
that you know.
You can have confidence evenwhen you doubt.
I mean, at one point he says,even, hey, when if you doubt, or
when anyone doubts, we have anadvocate with the Father.
We have uh a Messiah, Savior,whose name is Jesus.
We have um the gospel that'sbeen revealed to us and made
clear to us.
(40:44):
You know, it there's uh we havea propitiation for our sin.
If if you doubt, press intothese things that you know to be
true.
And John gives believersconfidence in a few in a few
areas.
In chapter 5, verse 1, he talksabout faith, everyone who
believes that Jesus is theChrist, the word faith.
Um chapter 2, verse 3, he usesobedience.
(41:04):
By this we know we have come toknow him if we keep his
commandments.
I'd say there, do you have adesire to obey God's word?
That's evidence of yoursalvation.
Chapter 3, verse 14.
Um, we know that we have passedout of death into life because
we love brothers.
Love is a mark of a true Christfollower.
You have a love, this is adifferent kind of love.
(41:26):
It's a love that exists betweenbrothers and sisters in the
faith, and you feel that love.
And then chapter 4 and verse uh13, the spirit in us is changing
us.
Listen to what he says.
By this we know that we abide inhim and he in us because he's
given us his spirit.
The spirit of God producesfruit, seals us in our
salvation, and gives usconfidence.
(41:48):
So John wants you to know thatyou can know.
I can know that I know that Iknow that I'm saved.
And so these 10 things uh I praywill be helpful for you.
Um John teaches us that thosetruly born of God believe the
real Jesus.
They trust his finished work,they obey him, they love others,
they stay faithful.
And all of this, they do allthis because God is at work in
(42:09):
them.
That's why, and that's how, andJohn wants us to know these
things.
So you pray for us here as wekick off 2026.
This is a link, a little bit, alittle bit longer episode, I
know, but I wanted to give youan uh update and uh and a kind
of kick the year off, see wherewe're going.
Winter swow is in full swing,and this is what we're teaching
about and and and teachingthrough, and I'm excited about
(42:30):
it, and I'm excited about thethings that God's doing um at
Snowbird going into this year.
It's very exciting.
We'll do more some more updateshere at the beginning of the
year.
Uh I'll I'll also do an updateon our year-end, our 2025
year-end campaign andfundraiser.
And uh we're we're trying towe're trying to get in place for
(42:52):
um as soon as we can.
Um up on the hill, we built, youknow, we built six new cabins
last year.
Um, and those cabins were builton on the year-end campaign last
year, part of part of that wasum we got the water finally, I
guess let me let me go ahead andclose with a little bit of of
(43:12):
development construction update.
Well, I'm already doing it, solet me just finish that way.
Um, after three years of workingto get the water line uh taken
care of to get ourinfrastructure rolling so we
could expand camp, and we hadpeople give to this project
three years ago, and we justwe've been hung up waiting on
the government, you know, is howit goes, waiting on the state,
(43:34):
and God finally has has madethat happen.
So it's done.
The project is done.
We had to run, we had the townhad to bring, the state and the
town had to bring a water mainfrom the town of Andrews to our
property.
We already had that water, butit was like a small two-inch
line, and we need to we need aline four times that size to get
(43:55):
the volume of water we need fordevelopment and growth moving
forward.
And so um that's done.
It's in the ground, and we nowhave that coming onto our
property.
So now we can start to grow anddevelop and expand.
And what we're working on rightnow is a big new bathhouse,
showers, bathrooms, laundry, allof that up on the hill where our
(44:16):
staff live, but also where wehouse um over 100 camp or
students in the um in thesummer.
And so about 150 people willstay up there.
And as it as it has been, those150 people have to walk a really
long way, a pretty good distanceto get to bathrooms and showers.
(44:36):
And then when they get there, umthere's there's not enough, you
gotta stand in line.
It's just a real pain.
So it's gonna enable us.
We we we added uh 50 beds, 50students a week this past
summer.
Um now we'll be able to servethose students so that they can
have a good experience duringtheir week at camp.
(44:57):
So that's the project that'sgoing on right now.
Um I'm very excited about that.
It's it's it's growth.
It's growth and progress.
And uh that's man, that's whatwe want.
That's what we need.
We need to continue to grow andprogress and move forward, and
that's happening.
Um, excited about that.
So we got water, we got what weneed to develop and grow.
Our team is clearing land now,and construction will start
(45:19):
soon.
I don't know when we'll get itdone.
The goal had been to get it doneby this this upcoming summer,
uh, but that was when we weretrying to get started
construction in October.
We actually ended up two monthsbehind on starting that
construction, which you don'thave to be good at math to know.
Two months, that's that's 70% ofyour summer.
So I don't know.
We'll see.
(45:39):
We'll see if we're able to getget that done at least for part
of the summer.
I don't know.
I I don't have a lot ofconfidence that we will, but the
progress will be evident andpeople will be able to see it
when they're here.
And who knows, maybe we can.
Maybe the Lord gives us auniquely dry winter and we're
able to get a lot of progress onconstruction.
It's just so wet and cold andrainy here in the winter, so
it's hard.
(46:00):
But uh trusting the Lord withthat and uh lots going on, lots
to be excited about.
Um I'm super excited, and I hopeyou are too.
Thanks for listening to NoSanity Required.
We we appreciate your feedbackon this content.
This this podcast just keepsgrowing like crazy, and it's
mind-blowing to me how God'susing it and spreading it.
And uh the last thing I'll sayis this going into 2026, we are
(46:22):
finally going to be producing NoSanity Required merchandise that
can be purchased through thegear store at Snowbird
Outfitters.
And uh a lot of people haveasked about it and are excited
about it, and I'm excited tobring it to you.
You guys are awesome.
The fact that y'all listen tothis and and care about what
what we have to say um in interms of your journey with with
(46:43):
within the Christian faith andfollowing Jesus in life and
trying to striving to live agodly life, honoring the Lord,
and that this would be aresource and a tool that would
help you with that.
It's it's very meaningful to us,and I'm just thankful.
So love and appreciate you, andwe'll see you next week on No
Sanity Required.
SPEAKER_00 (47:02):
Thanks for listening to No Sanity Required.
Please take a moment tosubscribe and leave a rating.
It really helps.
Visit us at swoutfitters.com tosee all of our programming and
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And we'll see you next week onNo Sanity Required.
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